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Comment by cake | Hacker News Reader

Imagine cars on demand. You don't own a car, you text a car to get you to work at 8:30, the car picks you up at home, drops you off (no parking space required) and goes on to the next ride.

I can't wait to see driverless cars.

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Almost like a taxi?

I guess with driverless it's more like cloud carpooling.

It'd be cheaper than a taxi since there's no driver to pay.

Yeah. Just buy the car first. And automated car insurance. And the monthly fee for internet connectivity so the car can get data from google.

That's an ingenious concept! I will start a company like that right now, I will call them... Taxis!

Yes almost like a taxi, what I meant to say is that today you don't drive to work in a taxi because they are so expensive most of the time or inconvenient because few are available.

If driverless cars became maintream I'm pretty sure it would drastically decrease the price of such commutes thus changing the way we own a car today.

It's called PRT (personal rapid transit) and in my view, it's the one glimmer of hope in turning a century's worth of investment in automobile infrastructure from a liability into an asset. It's a fantastic idea that's gaining some limited traction in places like London Heathrow (http://www.ultraprt.com/prt/), where hopefully it can gain enough of a foothold to expand. Right now, PRT systems tend to use their own rights-of-way, but with the advent of true driverless cars, all that could change.

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